The BHA notes that Cameron too is doing the “Britain is a _____ country” number.
Echoing the deeply mistaken comments of Communities Secretary Eric Pickles MP earlier this week, the Prime Minister David Cameron has today repeated the assertion that ‘Britain is a Christian country and we shouldn’t be ashamed to say so’ at a reception for Christians at Downing Street.
You know, you really would think that people in government, of all people, would know better than to say things like that. You would think that even though it’s obvious enough why people who depend on elections to do their chosen jobs are likely to pander to their audiences of the moment.
Cameron should know better than to say things like that because he’s simply defining a big chunk of the population as Alien. That’s a grotesque thing for someone in government to do.
However true it is that Britain is formally “a Christian country” it’s not at all true as a description, and the two are muddled together when people hear the claim. Prime ministers and presidents shouldn’t use that ambiguity to declare part of the population outsiders.
I always laugh when politicians talk about the UK’s ‘Christian tradition’, as Christianity, especially C of E, has only been around for a tiny fraction of the time that people have been living on this island. But for some (e.g. Anne Widdecombe is a repeat offender) it’s like nothing else existed before, or ever will in the future.